Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 157 The Death of Li Zicheng

Azige, Prince of He Shuoying of the Puppet Qing Dynasty, was conferred the title of General Jingyuan by the Qing court at the end of 17th Chongzhen. Attack Tongguan.

During the first month when the Ming court was busy dealing with Zuo Liangyu's tribe, Tongguan had already fallen.

Li Zicheng's troops were defeated one after another and had to withdraw from the whole of Shaanxi.

Li Zicheng, who is as panic-stricken as a bereaved dog, has been in a bad mood recently. From the triumph when he suddenly ascended to the throne at the beginning of the year to the current chasing by the Qing army, his temper has become more and more irritable, and he has become more and more irrational.

Along the way, many officials were killed by him in vain or anger, and he had no patience to comfort the officials, gentry and common people.

This also led to a large number of Ming army officers and soldiers who had surrendered to the Shun army in the past to surrender to the Lu Daqi Department of the Nanming Dynasty one after another.

On this day, just after entering the territory of Xiangyang, and seeing that Wuchang was about to be captured, Li Zicheng once again called a group of ministers to discuss matters.

However, at this moment, Niu Jinxing, the Prime Minister of Shun Ting, reported a piece of news to Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty, according to the report from the eyeliner, Liu Fangliang is currently in charge of the military commander in Fengyang, Shouzhou and other places, and he is now a general of the Ming court. "

"What! Liu Fangliang actually surrendered to Zhu Ming! You bastard!"

In this era, there are no fast communication conditions, and it is normal for the news to be delayed for several months or even a year. In addition, Liu Fangliang, a burglar general who belongs to Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian ordered Jin Yiwei to deliberately conceal the stain of his surrender. It can be regarded as a care for the attached officials.

Therefore, Li Zicheng always thought that Liu Fangliang was killed by Zhu Youjian when he went south due to his carelessness, but he never thought that Liu Fangliang actually belonged to the Ming court. His anger rose sharply again, and he wished he could kill these two people himself.

But at this time, Li Yan stood up: "Your Majesty, calm down, now is not the time to be angry because of these things. Liu Fangliang's people are shameless and shameless. They take refuge in Zhu Ming. Although they are hateful, they are not to be feared. What is to be feared now is that the Qing army is about to pursue them." , Your Majesty should immediately deploy defenses in Jingxiang and Henan, otherwise once the Qing army passes through the four counties of Jingxiang, we will have no danger to defend!"

"Your Majesty, what Li Yan said is not unreasonable, but after Liu Fangliang surrendered to the Ming court, the whole of Henan fell into the hands of the Ming court. Only the Huaiqing government is still in the hands of Liu Zhong's department, but Liu Zhong's department is facing the attack of the Duoduo department of the Qing army. I'm afraid it has already been transferred or destroyed, and now we have no place to hold in Henan!"

Niu Jinxing also stood up at this time and continued.

Seeing this, Li Yan stood up decisively: "Your Majesty, at present, the Duoduo tribe is marching in Henan, and I am worried that if he sends troops westward to join forces with Azig to attack us, we will face the enemy again. Most of them are now in the hands of the Ming court, but Weichen has a lot to do with Lu Daqi, and most of the prefectures and counties in Henan were also recruited by Weichen back then. Please send [-] elite soldiers to your majesty, so that Weichen can go out of Zhongzhou to ensure that they can be returned to Henan University. Ministry, to protect the right wing for His Majesty, when the time comes, His Majesty can Chen Bing Jingxiang, I Dashun may be able to base myself in Huguang, south to the right of the river, and not worry about not getting a chance to breathe. After all, I am not Zuo Liangyu, and I still have the support of the people. The decree of equalizing land and exempting taxation can still recruit a large number of common people to follow."

Li Zicheng looked at Li Yan and didn't say a word, but he was quite uneasy in his heart. He knew what Li Yan said was very reasonable, and now he can only rely on Li Yan's personal reputation if he wants to get Henan back into his hands , but Li Zicheng also had some doubts, would Li Yan take the opportunity to join the Ming court like Liu Fangliang? Heart.

"Back off, I'll think about it again." Li Zicheng waved his hand, but suddenly called Niu Jinxing back and asked, "Prime Minister, what do you think of Li Yan?"

Niu Jinxing didn't expect that Emperor Li Zicheng would suddenly ask this question, and suddenly realized that Li Zicheng might have become suspicious of Li Yan, and he and Li Yan had never been at odds with each other. There is no place for two tigers to go up the mountain. In order to keep his position as the first assistant civil servant, Niu Jinxing also replied decisively:

"Your Majesty, I dare to speak frankly. Regardless of Li Yan's ability, this person is not the same as us. He is a son of a decent and famous family. He came from a family background. His father is a minister of the Ministry of War. He has a prominent family background. He looks down on us vulgar people in his bones. There is still a low-level Confucian who is a humble minister, so Li Yan has a great Ming in his heart, especially at this time, does His Majesty think Li Yan is credible?"

After Niu Jinxing said it, he asked Li Zicheng.

"Then how is it better to get rid of it, and when is it better to get rid of it?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Just choose. Your Majesty's delay in moving Li Yan is naturally due to the fact that his wife, Hong Niangzi, has an elite army. But now that Hong Niangzi has been transferred to attack Dengzhou, it is our opportunity to get rid of Li Yan. Your Majesty." You asked Li Yan to come to the imperial court on the grounds of inviting him to discuss important matters, and then ambush him with swords and axes to kill him, and you used the excuse that Li Yan was killed by the Ming court's secret work, then the red lady will not believe it, your majesty can accept it at that time Hong Niangzi may kill her and take her back to her tribe."

When Niu Jinxing said this, Li Zicheng nodded, and then ordered: "I will pass on my oral order, and Li Yan and his younger brother Li Nian will have an audience!"

At the same time, Li Zicheng asked Niu Jinxing to go down to prepare.

However, at this moment, there were shouts of killing from outside the camp, and someone also shouted: "It's no good, it's the Qing soldiers who came to kill, the Tartar cavalry!"

The neighing of horses also scared Li Zicheng out of the tent with his sword, but he happened to see a hundred Tatar cavalrymen in soft armor with money rat tails on their heads coming towards him, and one of them He directly drew his hard bow and shot at Li Zicheng: "The intruder Li Zicheng must die!"

Li Zicheng didn't expect that there would be Tartar rangers here. Judging from their proficiency in bows and horses, they seemed to be veteran cavalrymen who had fought many battles. As he approached the camp of the Chinese army, one of them was none other than Jin Yiwei Commander Wu Mengming's most capable general, Jin Yiwei Qianhu Lan Guanwei.

Lan Guanwei picked up the Chongzhen [-]-style flintlock gun and fired at Li Zicheng.

Bang!
Li Zicheng only felt a dull pain in his chest, but when he looked down, he saw a blood hole the size of a teacup.

Lan Guanwei fired another shot and immediately left the scene.

At this time, Li Zicheng's soldiers realized that their emperor had been shot, and hurriedly shouted: "It's not good, Your Majesty has been shot!"

The Shun army had been beaten to the point of losing their courage by the Tartars, and now the sudden appearance of the Tartar cavalry caused chaos in the barracks, and when they heard that Li Zicheng had been shot, they were so frightened that they had no strength to resist. The Tazi cavalry took the opportunity to safely evacuate the camp of the Chinese army of the Shun army.

Lan Guanwei led his team to Niu Jinxing's tent.

"Qianhu, this person is Dashun Prime Minister Niu Jinxing!"

"Take it away, and meet up with the Zhenfu envoy," Lan Guanwei said, and he led the way in person. After leaving the Shunjun camp, after walking about three or four miles, he saw the Zhenfu envoy Wang Peng and a group of Jinyiwei's backbone forces. Sit on the ground and rest your feet.

"Boss, this tartar's hair style is too ugly, why don't we just shave it off, it's better to be a monk than to be a tartar!"

Yi Jinyiwei said.

"Keep it, there will be many opportunities to sneak into the enemy's rear as a Tartar in the future. When will the shaved hair grow back now? You and I have been His Majesty's domestic slaves since we joined the Jinyiwei. For the sake of His Majesty’s country, so what about keeping the head of the Tartars for life, and compared to those brothers who have gone to the real Tartars and lurked as slaves in coats, we are still better.”

After the governor Wang Peng said, he saw Lan Guanwei approaching with an official from the Shun Army escorting him, so he hurriedly stood up to greet him: "Thank you, this person is Niu Jinxing, the pseudo-Shun Prime Minister?"

(End of this chapter)